


One and the Same

by SonjaJade



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Dreams and Nightmares, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-24
Updated: 2017-03-24
Packaged: 2018-10-10 01:55:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10426605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonjaJade/pseuds/SonjaJade
Summary: A reoccurring nightmare gives Ed a different perspective on some things he’s thought a lot about.





	

**Author's Note:**

> FMA Fic Contest prompt: "As I am now, so shall you be"

Nightmares plagued Edward for weeks after nearly beating Shou Tucker to death.  Out of all the twisted and horrible dreams he’d had, one stuck out as a reoccurring vision- a warning from beyond the grave.  
  
In it, Tucker’s face, broken and bloody, loomed over Edward’s, magically changing from the victim to the attacker.  Blow after blow met with Ed’s face, strikes that matched his own in viciousness.  
  
“We are the same, Edward Elric!” he’d shout from his mangled face as he pummeled him.  “Scholarly alchemists, searching for the ultimate power!”  He jerked him up by his collar and spat in his face.  “I _AM_ A GOD!” he roared.  He dropped him to the floor, gesturing to the Gate of Truth that opened behind him.  “And as I am now, so shall you be.”  
  
In the gate, he saw an image of himself, grinning like a madman, holding an infant version of his brother.  At his feet was a cat.  He laid Baby Al next to the orange tabby and clapped his hands, transmuting his brother and the cat into a chimaera, proclaiming he’d rescued Al’s body at last.  The chimaera was crying, calling for ‘Mama’, then Ed sat straight up in bed, a cold sweat running down his back and tears in his eyes.  
  
“It’s alright, Ed,” Al’s tinny voice said gently.  “It’s only a dream.”  
  
He shook in the bed, wiping at his eyes.  Why wouldn’t they stop leaking?  “I’ll never be like him,” he muttered.  
  
“Be like who?”  
  
He looked at Al, tears streaming down his face.  “I would never do what Shou Tucker did to Nina!” he cried.  “You believe me, don’t you?”  
  
Al rose from his place in the corner of the small hotel room and patted Ed on his head.  “Of course I believe you.  I know you wouldn’t do that, not ever.”  
  
“Then why do I keep dreaming that I will?”  
  
Shou Tucker’s voice whispered in his head- “Because you already have. “  
  
That’s right.  He made a chimaera from a suit of armor and a soul.  Wasn’t that the same principle?  If there’d been a cat in the room that night, he could’ve bound Al’s soul to a cat and that would have been _the exact same thing_.  
  
The next night, the same dream came to him, but this time he fought back.  When the Gate began to open behind Tucker, Ed shouted, “No!  I saved Al from being lost forever and I’m searching to get his body back!  You made chimaeras to make _money_!  To maintain your station in life!”  He stood up and hit him as hard as he could with his metal hand.  “I paid the price for him, and would do it again!”  He hit him again, crunching through bone.  “We are _not_ the same, you bastard!”  Another blow and the monstrous man disintegrated into dust and the dream ended peacefully at last.  
  
He awoke refreshed the next morning, and he never met Shou Tucker on the dreamscape again.


End file.
